ShowXpress and Ableton Live 10

live control with midi devices

ShowXpress and Ableton Live 10

Postby Shoc » 01 September 2021, 22:04

BACKGROUND: Hello, I am programming lights via ShowXpress for a show in the coming months. I am a musician with a decent understanding of lighting and dmx etc. Upon getting help from Chauvet T.S. and an updated driver, I can now use ShowXpress to program my lights.

ISSUE: I need to be able to control these lights through midi commands sent out via Ableton Live 10, I am on a PC machine. (HP Pavilion i7 64bit 16GB RAM) This laptop has Ableton 10, ShowXpress installed but I couldn't see either program to connect midi data. With research I found loopmidi and virtualmidi by Tobias Erichsen and downloaded both. I was able to create a midi connection that Ableton can see and patch to but I am unable to see or patch ShowXpress to it (loopmidi).

BOTTOM LINE: Are these the right steps to take to achieve my end goal or am I heading in the wrong direction? If these are the right steps, then what am I missing? This is my first time actually creating an account and asking my question IN the forum lol as most of my questions have been asked already. This subject seems to be very niche. If I figure this out I will be making an e-course on it from start to finish because this will open the production door to many artists, so I really hope someone can help me.

Thanks in advance!
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Re: ShowXpress and Ableton Live 10

Postby support » 02 September 2021, 07:26

So we consider that you know how to set up the midi parameters in the window "Preferences" > tab "Midi" of our software, and the midi device is well declared in the list. And we go to the next step.

Usually, when the device is declared and the "Midi log" window shows no midi messages, the reason is another software is already listening the midi and it blocks the other software to do same.

FYI, our software asks the OS to be linked to the midi. If another software is already linked to it, then the OS answers "No" to our software.
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Re: ShowXpress and Ableton Live 10

Postby Shoc » 10 September 2021, 05:24

support wrote:So we consider that you know how to set up the midi parameters in the window "Preferences" > tab "Midi" of our software, and the midi device is well declared in the list. And we go to the next step.

Usually, when the device is declared and the "Midi log" window shows no midi messages, the reason is another software is already listening the midi and it blocks the other software to do same.

FYI, our software asks the OS to be linked to the midi. If another software is already linked to it, then the OS answers "No" to our software.


Thank you for responding and explaining. So am I to understand that it is virtually not possible? At least with the editions of and specific software used? I can link some videos of people using FL Studios or Ableton and I believe even Logic Pro mixed with DMXIS to run lights like I had explained before. But as of a year or more now, DMXIS is no longer sold or supported. (obviously if the ones who had it don't update that system it should continue working in a perfect world)
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Re: ShowXpress and Ableton Live 10

Postby support » 10 September 2021, 07:35

If the virtual midi router is well set and there is no other software catching the midi line, our software will be able to receive the midi messages and everything will work well.
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Re: ShowXpress and Ableton Live 10

Postby Shoc » 14 September 2021, 16:49

And to be clear you work with Chauvet ShowXpress correct? Would have time to work with me one on one?
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Re: ShowXpress and Ableton Live 10

Postby support » 15 September 2021, 08:13

Our first priority is to fix the problems with our software / interface. And we try to help, via this forum only, for the other problems not linked to our software / interface like (Operating System firewall / antivirus, midi router, usb power, dmx signal, ...).

In order to know where the problem comes from, we suggest you to make the following tests:
- with another midi device
- with another virtual midi router
- with another computer
And for each test, we need to know what you see in the window "midi log" of our software.
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Re: ShowXpress and Ableton Live 10

Postby sfilipin » 26 January 2024, 10:08

Getting different software like ShowXpress and Ableton to talk to each other can be challenging. I was using Ableton 10, too, and ran into some connection problems. What helped me was switching to Ableton Live 12. It's got some cool new stuff that made everything more manageable for me.

One big thing in Ableton 12 is mixing sounds without switching screens, which is helpful. There's also this neat feature for finding and sorting sounds quickly. And the MIDI Generators are great for creating new music bits. I learned about all these on https://faqaudio.com/t/ableton-live-12/27, and they helped me out.
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